


Invitations

by justalittlegreen



Series: Sunshine and Filth [28]
Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: F/M, Lies, M/M, Multi, Secrets, Tension, Unsaid things, right babies?, the roots of OT3, we know how it turns out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 00:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21290654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justalittlegreen/pseuds/justalittlegreen
Relationships: B. J. Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt/Peg Hunnicutt, B. J. Hunnicutt/Peg Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Series: Sunshine and Filth [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1173266
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Invitations

Mill Valley, 1953

The letters start almost immediately. By the time BJ's been home a month, Peg sees a letter from Maine every week. BJ takes them into his office. She doesn't know where he keeps them, but she knows a reply goes out immediately the next morning. Every time. They fill her with a kind of resignation tinged with jealousy when she sees how happy he is every time she hands him one of the envelopes. 

She doesn't say anything about it, though. BJ takes a month off before going back to work. Money is tight, but he wants the time to settle, to be with Erin. With him home in the afternoons, Peg can see more real estate clients, quit her job at the restaurant. She sells her first house, and the money situation eases. BJ does everything he can around the house; he fixes things that have dripped or dangled for months, mows the lawn within an inch of its life. He even cooks dinner. He praises Peg and dotes on Erin. There's enough of him that seems truly happy to be back with them. Maybe that's all he needs to let Hawkeye go.

But the letters don't stop. BJ gets a job in the emergency department of the brand-new Marin General Hospital; he comes home tired, but often smiling. He starts on the day shift, but complains that it cuts into his time with Erin. A month later, he switches to the second shift, which allows them to spend mornings together as a family, which Peg loves. She gets up first every morning to make him coffee - one of the few holdovers from their life before the war. And though the evenings get long, she's comforted by the way he slips into bed at ten or eleven o'clock and holds her close until she falls back asleep.

The letters exist outside of them. He doesn't talk about the war, or Korea very often.

And then one day, a letter comes for her. Postmark: Crabapple Cove, Maine.

Peggy hides it. Slips it into a drawer full of brassieres and tries not to think about it. The last letter that came in that handwriting set fire to everything she cherished. She has no idea what this one will do. But with Erin in bed and BJ not due home for a few hours, curiosity and dread battle it out until curiosity wins. She opens it with shaking hands.

The first thing she notices is the handwriting. The last letter she got was filled from edge to edge with cramped, barely-legible writing. This is completely different - still obviously the work of the same hand, but the letters are looser, larger, more open.

_Freer_ she thinks. 

_Dear Mrs. Hunnicutt,_

_It's hard to know what has or hasn't been said or discussed in the months since the war ended, but I thought you should know: I'm coming to a conference in San Francisco in three months, and BJ has invited me to visit. I'm writing to ask if I should give him my sincerest regrets. He won't suspect a thing if I'm too busy to make it out there. After all you've been through, you deserve more than just fair warning. This one is your call. _

_I have never forgotten the pain I must have caused you. It's a regret and a guilt I'll carry until the day I die. If I don't hear from you by the end of the month, I'll make my excuses to BJ._

_Hawkeye_

Peg reads the letter several times, folds it up, and slides it back into her lingerie drawer. She curls up on the couch in her nightgown and robe, turns the stereo and the lights on low, and re-reads the morning paper until she hears the car pull in.

"Peg?" BJ calls softly as he comes in through the kitchen door. "You still up?"

"In here," she says as loudly as she dares. BJ comes in to hang his coat by the front door and gives her a confused look. 

"Not tired yet?"

"Not yet." She turns her face up for a kiss before he sits down to take his shoes off. "I got a letter today," she says before she can chicken out, totally unsure of what might come out next.

"Oh? Something special?" 

"Mm." 

"Old friend?"

"Not exactly. It's - it was from Hawkeye." 

BJ freezes for a second, a skipped heartbeat. It goes through him like a shudder as he methodically loosens his shoelaces. "Hawkeye?" he asks, not looking up from his feet.

"Hawkeye," she repeats. "Isn't that something?"

She could almost laugh at the way he's obviously scrambling to figure out what she knows, except that there's a fear behind it that makes her chest ache. 

"Our anniversary isn't for another five months, Peg," he says lightly. "It won't take you that long to shoot another movie."

She gives him a small laugh for that, weak as the joke is. "Actually," she says, "he said he's coming to visit."

"Now that you mention it, I think I did see something about a conference coming up in a few months," BJ says. 

Her eyes narrow. "He said you invited him," she says flatly.

He at least has the decency to blush. "I - I wasn't sure how you'd feel about having a guest from - "

_from the other side of your bed?_ The thought sends a flare through her own cheeks as she waits to see where he goes with it.

" - from that part of my life," he finishes. "The war wasn't exactly a fun time. I wasn't sure how you would feel about it walking in the door."

"So you invited him without telling me?" 

"I was going to talk to you about it!" he cries in a whisper. "I wasn't trying to spring this on you, Peg, I promise. I was just waiting for the right moment to ask you."

"Looks like he beat you to it."

"Yeah. Yeah, he did."

There's a long silence during which he looks at her with such naked anxiety it's hard to stomach. 

"BJ?"

"Yes?"

"You and Hawkeye..."

She watches the sweat break out on his forehead and pretends not to see it. "...you drank a lot, in Korea, didn't you."

"Well...everyone drank a lot. It was one of the only pastimes; we had that jerryrigged still and the vile gin it produced" he says. "What does that have to do with - "

"I just want to know," she cuts in. "If you plan to do a lot of drinking while Hawkeye's here. Because I understand it was something you did a lot of...over there. And I don't want there to be any...disruptions, if he's to come visit."

For a moment, BJ looks like he's forgotten how to breathe. Peggy holds his gaze. He looks away first, but reaches out to put his hand on hers.

"Peggy Jane Hunnicutt," he says, his voice low and dark, "I promise, there will be no excessive drinking. No disruptions. It'll just be two old friends. I - I've wanted you to meet him for so long."

That's kind of sick. He wants them to meet?

"He kept me alive, over there," BJ continues, voice shaking just a little. "I wouldn't have made it - without him." His voice breaks on the final words.

That softens her just enough. She puts her other hand on top of his and squeezes. "Well," she says, "If you think you can control yourselves, and can have a nice visit - then yes. I think it's fine that he come for a visit."


End file.
